314 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
form, after an uneventful stalk which culminated in a shot 
with the Winchester at a hundred and seventy yards. In 
most places this particular stretch of country was not 
suitable for galloping, the ground being rotten, filled with 
holes, and covered with tall, coarse grass. One evening 
we saw two lions half a mile away; I tried to ride them, 
but my horse fell twice in the first hundred and fifty yards 
and I could not even keep them in sight. Another day 
we got a glimpse of two lions, quarter of a mile off, glid¬ 
ing away among the thorns. They went straight to the 
river and swam across it. More surprising was the fact 
that a monkey, which lost its head when we surprised it in 
a tree by the river, actually sprang plump into the stream, 
and swam, easily and strongly, across it. 
One day we had a most interesting experience with a 
cow giraffe. We saw her a long way off and stalked to 
within a couple of hundred yards before we could make out 
her sex. She was standing under some thorn-trees, occa¬ 
sionally shifting her position for a few yards, and then 
again standing motionless with her head thrust in among 
the branches. She was indulging in a series of noon naps. 
At last, when she stood and went to sleep again, I walked 
up to her, Cuninghame and our two gun-bearers, Bakhari 
and Kongoni, following a hundred yards behind. When 
I was within forty yards, in plain sight, away from cover, 
she opened her eyes and looked drowsily at me; but I stood 
motionless and she dozed off again. This time I walked up 
to within ten feet of her. Nearer I did not care to venture, 
as giraffe strike and kick very hard with their hooves, 
and, moreover, occasionally strike with the head, the blow 
seemingly not being delivered with the knobby, skin- 
